


An Infinite Amount of Chances

by HeroicUnicorn99



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: A little angst, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Happy Ending, Immortality, M/M, Post-Canon, Reincarnation, ReincarnationAU, but not too much, eventuallyhappy, immortal!Damen, reincarnated!Laurent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:33:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24165931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeroicUnicorn99/pseuds/HeroicUnicorn99
Summary: Damen is given an infinite amount of second chances to once again reunite with Laurent. He's given a near-impossible task to get him back. But it's okay, because if there's one person Damen trusts with everything it's him.
Relationships: Damen & Laurent (Captive Prince), Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 16





	An Infinite Amount of Chances

“Shh, love, I’m here, don’t worry.” Damen gently ran his fingers through his dying husband’s hair. Laurent of Vere looked up at him through squinted eyes, a feverish sweat making his golden blond hair damp and dark.  
“I’ll miss you,” Laurent started. His rasping voice pained Damen more than words could describe. He would’ve done anything to make it, the disease, everything, stop. It wasn’t fair, nothing was fair. But alas, the strange illness had spread through both Akielos and Vere while none of the physicians had been able to find a suitable treatment.  
Damen forced the frown of his face to smile again for his beloved. “Please,” he started, “Don’t speak like that. You’re going to get better, I promise.”  
With that, a strangled chuckle escaped from Laurent’s cracked lips. “Don’t keep promises you can’t keep, love.”  
He leaned down to kiss his forehead. “Maybe the fates will smile upon us. Maybe the universe will decide to give us a break.”  
And despite everything, Laurent grinned. Damen felt a pressure in his chest knowing that this may very well be the last time he saw that expression on his lover’s face. At age 47, Damen had seen more things in life than many do in a hundred lifetimes. Rival kingdoms unite into one, enemies to friends to lovers, and much more. But if you pressed Damen, he’d still say that his most favorite thing in the entire universe was Laurent’s smile.  
“I’ll admit,” Laurent continued, “I have some regrets.”  
He smiled fondly. “The man who lived a life with no regrets never really lived. Or loved.”  
“What do you think happens in the next life, if there even is one, when our mortal bodies fail?”  
A hard question. Damen had seen more than his share of death in his life. Of course he’d acknowledged that one day he would die along with everyone else he knew, but thoughts of where he went after everything had always been pushed back into his brain. Religions always tried to explain different theories, but none had ever resonated with him. Faith, he decided, could only ever truly be placed in the things he truly trusted.  
Like Laurent.  
Who was lying in a bed in front of him, dying a slow death, and Damen had no idea what to say to him.  
“I...I guess I’ve never really thought too hard about it.”  
Laurent frowned. “Really? Never?”  
Damen shrugged. “I knew it would happen to me like it did everyone else, but I thought it was more important to focus on the present, on living. I didn't think about it a lot.”  
“Well, I have. I’ve read countless books with hundred of theories regarding an afterlife. And would you like to know something they all had in common?”  
“What?”  
“They all sounded ridiculous. I think-“ Laurent was interrupted by a fit of coughing. Damen moved to get the physician, but Laurent’s grip on his hand tightened, signaling for him to stay.  
“I think that some things can’t be explained,” Laurent finished, his voice barely even a whisper. The pressure in Damen’s chest was building exponentially and there was nothing he could do to stop it.  
Laurent sighed. It was a sigh that Damen had gotten used to in their many years of marriage. It meant that Laurent was frustrated, not with Damen but with the universe itself.  
Damen understood the sentiment.  
“Will you promise me something, dear?” Laurent asked.  
Damen nodded. “Of course. Anything.” He recognized the glint in his husband’s eyes. It meant he had an idea. Knowing Laurent the possibilities were endless, but Damen trusted (or just loved) him enough not to care.  
“Promise me you’ll stay by my side no matter what. Until the end.”  
Damen could feel tears welling up into his eyes. He raised Laurent’s hand to his lips and kissed it chastely.  
“My dear, I thought I already had.”  
King Damianos and King Laurent fell asleep peacefully, fingers laced together. But in the morning, only one of them awoke.

———

Let it be said that Damianos never turned bitter. It is true that he never laughed or smiled as brightly as he did before the passing of his late husband. Every morning without fail he woke up and turned over fully expecting to see a head of golden hair. His eyes still seemed a tad vacant during council meetings, long after the extra chair had been removed from the room. His attendants made sure not to bother him when he went to visit the royal tomb every evening. Even his closest friends had no idea how to stop his hurting.  
But he was still a good king and an even better man. He passed laws to protect his people. During his reign, he worked to purge corruption from his kingdom. Damianos never turned cold or bitter. He did not shut out nor abandon his world. In fact, Damianos worked to protect others from the cruelty of the world that had harmed him.  
Which was why, at age 87, as he lay in his deathbed, Damianos did not feel fear or apprehension. He did not know what lie beyond life and he accepted it. Of course, he had regrets, but he knew he lived a full life.  
As King Damianos succumbed to a similar disease that his husband did, he was surrounded by the faces of friends and family. He wasn’t alone, he was never alone, but now he’d be reunited once more with the one he was meant for. Damianos knew this, which was why when his last whispery breath fell from his lips he smiled.

———

Damen was ready. He'd been ready for forty years. He'd been patient and waited. True to his words to Laurent, he never forgot him, visiting his tomb daily. He focused on living in the present and making his kingdom a better place. He did it all for Laurent.  
He fully expected to see Laurent, a golden halo encircling his head with his hand outstretched towards him to take him into the light. Or something.  
Instead, all he felt was numb.  
Damen had closed his eyes, felt himself take one last breath. When he opened his eyes again he was in a small, darkly lit room. He was sitting on a smooth wooden chair.  
More importantly, he was alone.  
"Hello?" He called out, unsure. This wasn't how it was supposed to go, he thought. I was supposed to find Laurent and then-  
He was interrupted by the sound of a door opening. There hadn't been a door there before, Damen was sure of it.  
Out of the door walked a familiar face.  
"Charls!" Damen said, a grin appearing on his face. It had been decades since he'd seen the kind cloth merchant. He and Laurent had attended the funeral together.  
The merchant smiled and sat down on another chair that yet again had not been there before.  
"Hello," he greeted softly, a mysterious smile on his face.  
"Am I dead?" asked Damen, shifting his weight in the chair. Something didn't feel right. His body felt like it had fallen asleep, like his entire body would soon feel pins and needles everywhere. There was a low ringing in his ears too.  
Charls shrugged. "Sort of."  
Damen frowned. "What do you mean? I know I died, so where's-"  
He raised a hand to stop him.  
"You're in between," he explained. "Your physical body died of age, and now, what you call your soul, is here alive."  
"Where's Laurent?" Damen blurted out. "Please, Charls, I have to-"  
Charls shook his head. "That's your first question? 'Where's Laurent?' You don't want to ask me anything else, like the meaning of life? Or something more purposeful."  
Damen stared at him blankly, his frustration growing.  
"It's forty-two, by the way," Charls continued, ignoring Damen's frustration. "You'll get the reference later, but that's not important right now."  
"Are you a god?"  
Charls outright laughed. "Well," he started, "I'm not "god", and I'm definitely not Charls either. Think of me as...as a facet of the universe."  
"That doesn't make any sense."  
"It's not supposed to. Your kind was not made to understand a lot of things."  
"What's going to happen?"  
"To you or the universe?"  
He glared at not-Charls-and-not-a-god-either.  
"What's happening to me?"  
Not-Charls sighed.  
"You are getting another chance. An infinite amount of chances, in fact."  
"What?"  
"Sometimes the universe picks favorites. She tries to balance the cosmic scale. She knows that in this life she didn't make things easy for you and your lover. So, she's giving you more chances."  
Damen was suspicious. "What's that supposed to mean."  
Charls laughed again. "I guess you'll just have to figure it out."  
The ringing in his ears was getting louder. "But what about-"  
"Remember, he has to remember and you can't tell him."  
"Who has to remember?" Damen was starting to feel more numb like the oxygen was being cut off from his brain.  
"Remember, it will repeat until you fix it!"  
Damen couldn't move, couldn't speak. His sight was beginning to swirl away, like water down a drain.  
And everything was black.

**Author's Note:**

> A little angsty at the beginning, I know, but it'll get happy soon I promise. Mainly because I'm writing this in quarantine in an effort to keep sane ;)


End file.
